Federal Student Aid reports about $1.7 trillion in outstanding federal student loans across 42.6 million recipients as of March 31, 2026. A separate Federal Reserve Bank of New York measure, based on consumer credit reports, recorded $1.651 trillion in student-loan balances at the end of June 2026.
Those figures describe different datasets and should not be treated as interchangeable totals. The Education Department measures its federal loan portfolio from administrative records. The New York Fed measures student-loan balances appearing in a nationally representative consumer credit panel.
$1.7 trillion
42.6 million
$1.651 trillion
About 9 million
Two Current Measures of Student Loan Debt
The Education Department’s federal portfolio and the New York Fed’s consumer-credit measure answer different questions. Federal Student Aid reported 42.6 million recipients with roughly $1.7 trillion in outstanding federal student loans at the end of March 2026. More than $1.64 trillion of that amount was federally managed across 40.9 million recipient accounts.
The federal portfolio consists primarily of Direct Loans. Direct Loans represented more than 90% of outstanding federal debt in the March 2026 release. Federal Family Education Loan Program debt represented about 9%, while Perkins Loans accounted for less than one-sixth of 1%.
The $1.7 trillion federal portfolio figure and the New York Fed’s $1.651 trillion consumer-credit figure should not be added together. They come from different reporting systems, coverage rules and measurement methods.
Student Loan Balances on Consumer Credit Reports
The New York Fed’s student-loan balance measure changed little over the five quarters ending in June 2026. The balance rose from $1.638 trillion in the second quarter of 2025 to $1.664 trillion at the end of 2025, then declined in both quarters of 2026. It stood at $1.651 trillion in Q2 2026, $13 billion above its level one year earlier.
Student Loan Balances Reported by the New York Fed
Balances appearing in the Consumer Credit Panel, Q2 2025 through Q2 2026.
| Quarter | Outstanding Balance | Quarterly Change |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | $1.638 trillion | +$7 billion |
| Q3 2025 | $1.653 trillion | +$15 billion |
| Q4 2025 | $1.664 trillion | +$11 billion |
| Q1 2026 | $1.658 trillion | −$6 billion |
| Q2 2026 | $1.651 trillion | −$7 billion |
Student Loan Balance, Q2 2025–Q2 2026
Outstanding student-loan balances in the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel.
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, Q2 2025 through Q2 2026.
The balance has been nearly flat since mid-2025
- The Consumer Credit Panel balance increased by $26 billion between Q2 and Q4 2025, from $1.638 trillion to $1.664 trillion.
- Two consecutive quarterly declines brought the balance back to $1.651 trillion by June 2026.
- The Q2 2026 balance remained $13 billion higher than one year earlier despite the recent declines.
Repayment, Forbearance, Deferment and Default
Federal Student Aid’s March 2026 reporting shows a portfolio spread across active repayment, temporary nonpayment statuses and default. These categories cannot be treated as a simple borrower distribution because a recipient can hold multiple loans in different statuses.
Federally Managed Loan Status Measures
Selected Federal Student Aid measures as of March 2026. Recipient counts can overlap across loan statuses.
| Status Measure | Recipients | Outstanding Balance | Portfolio Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current repayment or delinquency | More than 17.2 million | About $633 billion | About 42% of federally managed recipients and 39% of the $1.64 trillion federally managed balance |
| Forbearance | 8.4 million | About $485 billion | About one-fifth of federally managed recipients had at least one loan in forbearance |
| Deferment | Almost 3.6 million | About $157 billion | About 9% of federally managed recipients had at least one loan in deferment |
| Default | About 9 million | About $220 billion | More than 13% of the federally managed balance was associated with borrowers in default |
A recipient with separate loans in repayment and deferment can appear in both status categories. The figures above therefore should not be summed to calculate a total number of borrowers.
Income-Driven Repayment Enrollment
About 13 million Direct Loan and ED-serviced FFEL borrowers in repayment, deferment or forbearance were enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan in March 2026. That represented about 44% of borrowers in the ED-serviced repayment-plan population.
Balances associated with income-driven plans totaled about $784 billion. Measured by dollars rather than borrowers, income-driven plans represented 62% of the ED-serviced repayment-plan universe, up from 55% in March 2025.
New Serious Delinquency Fell After a Late-2025 Peak
The New York Fed’s flow into serious delinquency measure rose through the second half of 2025 and then declined during 2026. The annualized share of student-loan balances newly transitioning into serious delinquency reached 16.19% in Q4 2025 before falling to 10.86% in Q1 2026 and 7.83% in Q2.
Flow Into Serious Student Loan Delinquency
Annualized share of balances newly becoming at least 90 days delinquent, New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel.
| Quarter | Flow Into Serious Delinquency |
|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 12.88% |
| Q3 2025 | 14.26% |
| Q4 2025 | 16.19% |
| Q1 2026 | 10.86% |
| Q2 2026 | 7.83% |
Flow Into Serious Student Loan Delinquency
Annualized share of balances newly transitioning into 90-or-more-day delinquency.
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, Q2 2025 through Q2 2026.
Flow into serious delinquency is not the percentage of all student-loan balances currently 90 or more days past due. It measures balances newly moving into serious delinquency. Federal administrative default is another separate measure. The New York Fed also cautions that resumed reporting of defaulted federal student debt continues to affect recent delinquency statistics.
The 2026 decline follows an unusual reporting period
- The flow measure climbed from 12.88% in Q2 2025 to 16.19% in Q4 2025.
- By Q2 2026 it had fallen to 7.83%, less than half its Q4 2025 level.
- The series should not be interpreted as a clean pre- and post-pandemic comparison because previously unreported missed federal payments began reappearing on credit reports in 2025.
Higher-Balance Borrowers Hold a Large Share of Federal Debt
Federal debt is not distributed evenly across borrowers. Federal Student Aid data reported by College Board for June 2025 show that borrowers owing $80,000 or more represented about 11% of borrowers but held 49% of outstanding federal education debt.
At the other end of the distribution, borrowers owing less than $10,000 represented 32% of borrowers and held only 4% of outstanding debt.
Federal Student Loan Borrowers and Debt by Outstanding Balance
Share of federal borrowers and outstanding federal debt by borrower balance, June 30, 2025.
| Outstanding Borrower Balance | Share of Borrowers | Share of Debt |
|---|---|---|
| Less than $5,000 | 15% | 1% |
| $5,000–$9,999 | 17% | 3% |
| $10,000–$19,999 | 21% | 8% |
| $20,000–$39,999 | 22% | 16% |
| $40,000–$59,999 | 9% | 12% |
| $60,000–$79,999 | 6% | 11% |
| $80,000–$99,999 | 3% | 8% |
| $100,000–$199,999 | 6% | 21% |
| $200,000 or more | 2% | 20% |
Federal Debt Is Concentrated in Larger Balances
Borrower share compared with debt share for each outstanding balance range, June 2025.
Trends in Student Aid 2025, Federal Student Aid portfolio data as of June 30, 2025. Percentages are rounded.
Debt at Graduation Measures a Different Population
Outstanding balances across all borrowers should not be compared directly with debt at graduation. College Board reports that 2023–24 bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed for college borrowed an average of $29,560. This is a cohort measure for bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed, not an average balance for every person with a student loan.
$29,560
$102.6 billion
Total borrowing during one academic year is also a flow rather than an outstanding debt stock. College Board estimates that students and parents borrowed $102.6 billion in federal and nonfederal education loans during 2024–25, up from $101.4 billion in inflation-adjusted 2024 dollars during 2023–24.
Average debt among borrowers is higher than an average calculated across all graduates because graduates who did not borrow are excluded. Debt at graduation, outstanding federal balance and total annual loan originations describe different populations and periods.
Data Notes
- Federal Student Aid portfolio: administrative data covering federal education loans. The current figures used here are through March 31, 2026.
- New York Fed student-loan balance: student-loan debt appearing in the Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data. The latest period used here is June 30, 2026.
- Recipient counts: FSA portfolio reports can count a recipient in more than one loan-status category when that person has separate loans in different statuses. Status rows therefore cannot be added together to produce an unduplicated borrower count.
- Default and delinquency: federal administrative default status and credit-report delinquency measures are not interchangeable. The New York Fed’s flow into serious delinquency series measures balances newly moving to at least 90 days past due.
- Recent delinquency comparisons: the New York Fed warns that the return of previously unreported missed federal student-loan payments to credit reports affects the comparability of recent delinquency data.
- Debt-size distribution: borrower and debt shares are based on the June 2025 federal portfolio snapshot reported in College Board’s 2025 student-aid data. Published percentages are rounded and may not sum to exactly 100%.
- Debt at graduation: the $29,560 figure applies to 2023–24 bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed. It is not the average outstanding balance of all federal borrowers.
Sources
- Federal Student Aid Portfolio Summary — U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid; federal portfolio reporting used for outstanding loan coverage and program definitions.
- Federal Student Aid Posts Updated Reports to FSA Data Center — Federal Student Aid, data through March 31, 2026; used for the current federal portfolio, repayment-status, default, forbearance, deferment and income-driven repayment measures.
- Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Consumer Credit Panel; used for quarterly student-loan balances and serious-delinquency transition data through Q2 2026.
- Household Debt Balances Decreased Slightly; Credit Card Delinquency Transition Rates Remained Steady — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Q2 2026; used for the June 2026 student-loan balance and current delinquency-flow measure.
- Trends in Student Aid 2025: Highlights — College Board; used for 2024–25 education borrowing, debt among 2023–24 bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed, and federal borrower debt-size distribution.
Cite This Page
DebtData.org. (2026). Student Loan Debt Statistics. https://debtdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics/“Student Loan Debt Statistics.” DebtData.org, August 30, 2026, https://debtdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics/.DebtData.org. “Student Loan Debt Statistics.” Last modified August 30, 2026. https://debtdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics/.